Thursday, February 02, 2012

Liberal Leadership Straw Poll

After looking at some of the people who might run for Liberal leader (part 1, part 2), I figured it's worth puting the question to a completely unscientific vote.

I've listed three questions below. The first asks who you think will run for Liberal leader - by all means, click on as many names as you think there will be candidates, and suggest others in the comments section.

The second asks for candidates you'd consider supporting if they ran. I know there are half a dozen names on that list that appeal to me, so click on any you could see yourself voting for (and if you're not a Liberal, put on your Liberal hat for a minute to answer the question).

The final question asks for what qualities the next Liberal leader should have. Again, if you're not a Liberal, pretend for a minute you are (then shower afterwards), and pick the three or four qualities you think the party needs most from its next leader.

I think Eric Hoskins may be more credible then Glen Murray, though I don't know either well. Murray's Quebec and western roots are interesting, I think he's a few years to old though.

I'm not a Liberal supporter but could potentially. I'd like to see someone who knows economics, is a blue Grit, and puts an end to some of these grand national policies. Just because a policy is good in Quebec doesn't mean it is good for Alberta or BC and the party doesn't seem to realize that. We need policies that takes into consideration each region.

Someone I'd like to see more from is Ted Hsu. He's multilingual, a visible minority, young and has a strong business and economics background. His lack of political experience isn't great but I don't think that is necessarily important, basically you're either a good politican or not.

I had Hoskins, Hsu, Pablo Rodriguez, and Jean Charest on my long list of candidates based on feedback to the first lists, but ran out of spots on the poll for them.

It may be a bit premature for Hsu or Hoskins to run for leader, but both would offer a "fresh face" appeal (with some experience), and are impressive politicians. If the LPC is looking for someone who can grow into the role, maybe it's not so far fetched.

As an independent, I'd like to second the call for an economically literate blue Liberal. And, being in BC, I'd also second the call for someone who's aware that the nation extends beyond the Ontario-Manitoba border.

I'm not really familiar with most of the candidate candidates, but I do have an anti-choice - Sheila Copps. If you're looking to tomorrow and not yesterday, she's not the person. If you're looking for someone who doesn't make foolish pledges and then tries to (or did, depending on your interpretation) renege - I'm thinking about the GST seat resignation fiasco here - she's not the person.

First up, you don't have to worry about Sheila running for leadership. She just simply won't. You don't need to give reasons about why you wouldn't like her since she has put out there how she is done with elected politics so many times that it need not be discussed any further.

On the other hand, there are names that have come up on my radar, lesser known names admittedly, that are not on this list:

1. David Merner - apparently mulling over a run.2. Line Beauchamp - Quebec Liberals Deputy Leader apparently mulling over a run.3. Natalie Normandau - Just resigned from the Quebec Liberals and apparently as well... mulling over a run.4. You have to give credit to the only, already announced, candidate so far running: Scott Yee.First see: http://liberalleadershiprace.wordpress.com/Then see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Party_%28British_Columbia%29

Glad you picked up on Borys as he is thinking strongly about running too.

I think we can all agree that Stephen Harper is turning Canada into a post-modern facist state.

Only Justin Trudeau can restore Canada and make us believe in something again. Justin Trudeau is very popular with the youth vote and has a fabulous head of hair. He'd have Obama eating out of his hand.

Justin won't run. He has 2 young kids at home. He wants to be a good family guy before pursuing leadership. You won't see him pursue it until 2019 or later.Further, he needs time to establish what HE stands for rather than what his name stands for. He needs to be the 21st century man and he is having a hard time reconciling his name with that.

Jim R - On the poll asking for the qualities people want in the next leader, "good communicator" is currently winning. And Trudeau is a good communicator.

The argument for Trudeau would be that, when all is said and done, the job of the leader is to sell the Liberal vision and platform to voters. He's someone who could do a good job selling that message, and he's such a rockstar among Liberal circles that he'd boost the party's fundraising and motivate its membership.

a) People have been banging at McKenna's door since 2004. He isn't answering. Well, his answer apparently was, "Not unless I'm guaranteed to win." Apparently he has "big plans" and he wouldn't want them tarnished by losing or something crazily risky like that in this wild democracy of ours. McKenna would be great and win the Eastern vote... I'm not so sure the RoC cares enough.b) Amanda Lang's parents are very active, but she is very comfortable where she is. c) Not to take credit - I'm only putting my blog's url in this post so that you can check back and see that it was my original idea that Amanda Lang and Andrew Coyne should run. I was joking about a new "three wise-men" that are required from outside the normal box of politics to revitalize LPC like they did last time. I said it would be super funny to have them all off the CBC as that would infuriate Conservatives to no end. At the convention, I met Andrew Coyne and mentioned to him how it was my idea initially and he said, "Oh... so you're the idiot". He said to everyone around us who said, "Why wont you run?" or "Run for leader!" or "Will you run?" He said, "NO" "NO" and "NO". Coyne is a very intriguing "idea", but the man hates organized politics, politicians and thinks he is not "practiced enough" for the job. While we should continue for bold ideas... Coyne has NO interest in leading our party.

But if the Liberals could win over their voters they could easily win a majority. If the NDP fell back into the mid teens, and the Bloc basically disappeared the Liberal could form government. The Conservatives didn't win everyone of their ridings with 50%+.